Archive for the ‘Culture’ Category
Monday, March 12th, 2007 |
This is probably going to get some people mad, but I’m going to be honest with you. Yesterday while watching the opening Ceremony to the cricket world cup, I thought I died and went to Reggae Sunsplash.
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| Fireworks Light the Sky |
I was actually a little shocked to see how Jamaican the Opening Ceremony was. Yes it was organized by the Jamaican Local Organizing Committee, but geez and ages, from start to finish it was Jamaican act after Jamaican act. Trinidad was represented by Machel, David Rudder, Boogsie Sharp, Mungal Pattasar and Faye-Ann Lyons who performed the tournament’s Official Song, “The Game of Love and Unity” along with Bajan Rupee and Shaggy.
Barbados fared even worse than us. They got Alison Hinds and Rupee (who performed the official song).
Jamaica was represented by Beres Hammond, Buju Banton, Dean Frazer, Gregory Isaacs, Half Pint, Jimmy Cliff,, Sean Paul, Shaggy, Sly & Robbie, The I Threes (who were part of a very moving Bob Marley tribute), Byron Lee and the Dragonaires, Sanchez (who sang the Jamaican National Anthem) and Lovindeer.
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| Dancers take the field |
The night was also supplied with entertainment from Angelique Kidjo (so they say, but I didn’t see her), Montserratian Arrow, Vincentian, Kevin Lyttle, South Africa’s Lucky Dube and Drum Caf, Scotsmen The Duffies, and an Irish Celtic dancing group.
But oh gosh boy, not a steelband in sight. Yeah Boogsie was there, but that’s one lonely pair of double seconds. No Limbo? The other islands didn’t have much else to offer except Lyttle, Hinds and Arrow? You would swear that Jamaica had all the talent.
This is not an anti-Jamaican post. I don’t have anything against Jamaica, and maybe my list of performers could be incomplete, but I think that the Jamaican LOC could have done a better job of representing the West Indies. Apparently I’m not the only person who thinks so.
Posted in Cricket, Culture, Entertainment | 19 Comments »
Thursday, February 22nd, 2007 |
The mas is all over now. I can’t say that I took notice of a lot of it. Every year I make sure to watch the Dimanche Gras show, but that’s about it for Carnival festivities for me really. Dimanche Gras is always the best part of the season and particularly the Calypso Monarch final. I used to watch the Kings and Queens show also, but with this year’s one-song rule leaving the King and Queens of the band unsandwiched by calypsos, I’ve realized I don’t like watching it as much as I thought I did. Instead, after the calypsos were done, I came and sat here next to my computer till the results were ready.
The show overall was OK I guess. The stage design was kind of poor in my opinion. It looked like an 80’s Scouting for Talent stage. In fact the show on a whole had that feeling – more of a talent competition than the grand finale of calypso. You would think that after all these years we could produce something a little prettier than that. Needless to say, I was very disappointed.
You can see the results here, but here’s a rundown of how I felt about each finalist begining in last place:
15th – Black Sage – “Send for Somebody” – Ho hum. Subject matter wasn’t terrible, but the song itself was plenty bland. The subject of his calypso was the fact that T&T sends abroad for all its experts….or something like that.
13th (tied) Brother Valentino – “Pioneer” – I apologise, but this was just another tired calypso about pan that really didn’t have anything new to say. I think the judges let it into the final because they couldn’t bear to have a calypso about the national instrument left out of the show. It’s kind of like leaving Miss USA out of the Miss Universe final being held in New York – you just don’t do it.
13th (tied) Crazy “Paradise” – I don’t think 13th place did this justice. I thought it deserved much better. I guess it may have lacked a little originality. It was however, lyrics-wise, one of my favourites for the night.
12th Mr Caesar – “Carry Me” – Up to now I don’t know what this boy was singing about. A very forgettable performance. It may be my fault too since during stanza’s 3-4, I was raiding the kitchen for snacks. I won’t accept all the blame though since stanzas 1-2 and included chorus didn’t hold much promise. The snack was good however – ’twas a Nature Valley granola bar – the Oats ‘N Honey variety.
11th Singing Sandra – “Sudan” — Singing Sandra starts off this song talking about how we have to end racism in this country and then for the next 5 or so verses goes on a tirade of unfounded accusation after unfounded accusation about how doctors (read: non-Afro-Trini doctors) at the nation’s hospitals are killing African babies and tying African mother’s tubes – hence the title of the song “Sudan”. Right. The premise of the song was that it was a “friend” who was telling her about all the atrocities that were being committed and she (Singing Sandra) was having a hard time believing it. What a way to end racial discrimination. I used to like Singing Sandra, but *flush*.
10th Shadow – “If I Coulda” — How could Shadow make it to the final with this song but not with “Poverty is Hell”? “If I Coulda” is not a bad song, it’s a nice little ditty about not giving excuses, but it was never going to win the Calypso Monarch. Could I have missed its underlying meaning? By the way, “Poverty is Hell” is one of my all-time favourite calypsos.
9th Heather McIntosh – “Check One” — I really thought the name of this was “Check the I”. Anyway, it was a good song, the only bad part about it was that Heather McIntosh chose to punctuate her calypso with shouts of “Haile Selassie I” and “Jah Rastafari” which really had nothing to do with the song on a whole. The song was about the arrogance of the Government who does thing without checking with the “I” i.e. the electorate. Maybe I’m missing a parallel meaning, and maybe she meant to allude that the “I” was also God. If she did, that was completely lost on me. It was a little confusing. Her father Shortpants filled the roll of prop man and brought on a couple signs or something like that. I can’t remember what the signs said.
8th Skatie – “Eat Yuh Cake and Still Have it” — Ho hum. I think Skatie’s aim was to ensure that the Government would still hire him to sing PSAs like “Picture, Picture of our Health Ministry…”. I’m sure his paycheck is not in danger after taking shots at things like anti-smelter protesters. Mind you he did criticize the Government, but I think his role was more of a Shakespearean Fool than a strong critic. He also managed to take a jab at Chalkie saying (and I’m paraphrasing) that “Chalkie has won the crown so many times and wouldn’t give the youngsters a chance”. Well if the youngsters are singing crap like “Eat Yuh Cake and Still Have it”, what do you expect, Skatie? By all means Chalkie, please sing till you’re 90. In any case Skatie must be getting too caught up in the whole “Monarch” aspect of this thing. The crown has to be earned, not handed down.
7th Sean Daniel – “Ring” – This anti-premarital sex song was good and the performance was entertaining and energetic. I liked it a lot. It deserved a top 10 finish. I especially liked the prop man in the back with the oversized wedding band, performing all kinds of shenanigans. Daniel also had the best line of “No Ring, No Ting”.
6th Duane O’Connor – “Satorial Elegance” — This song heaped praises on a very praiseworthy Might Duke. It bored me out of my mind. I think this song had the “Miss USA in the Miss Universe Pageant in the USA” effect also. “A song about a legendary calypsonian? How could we leave it out?”
5th Chalkdust — “Soca Warriors” — One of my all-time favourite Calypsonians. His song this year was quite good. He used his song to demonstrate how he was a Soca Warrior too – a soca warrior before the term was coined. I think he even fired a shot off at Skatie, although I can’t now remember what it was.
4th Maria Bhola – “I Love You” – perhaps the most entertaining performance of the evening. She chose to ridicule Larry Achong behavior at the TV6 Chatham Town Meeting saying “I love you” instead of, well, the obvious. Equipped with gray hair and Achong’s Farmer Brown get-up, she worked her fake pot belly like I have never seen a pot belly being worked before (or hopefully, ever will). Performance-wise, she was the best hands down. I was transfixed to her and her pot belly from the moment she stepped on stage. Her song was pretty good too, and I had hoped for a higher place for her. In fact, I thought 4th was surprisingly low.
3rd Devon Seales – “One Song” – His was another good performance. Complete with Western wear and a orange toy pistol, looking like he was prepared for a gunfight, Devon Seales was excellent. His song was a list of all the things he wanted to sing, but couldn’t because he only had one song. I guess the Old West wear was a symbol of the one-shot showdown that the Calypso Monarch was reduced to. Obviously this didn’t go unnoticed by the judges either who gave him third place.
2nd De Fosto Himself – “Police Money” — I realize that a lot of people liked this one a lot more than I did. It’s actually a good song, but I wouldn’t have picked him to get second place. Probably it’s a little hard for me to take him seriously anymore after last years Soca Warriors calypso which looked like nothing more than a singing request to be sent to Germany with the other talent. I could be wrong though.
1st Cro Cro – “Nobody Ain’t Go Know” — Well Cro Cro has never been my favourite calypsonian. While a lot of people will say “Cro Cro is my boy”, I remember the things he has sung in the past and the amount of hurt it has caused to Indo-Trinidadians. I remember those things even when terms like “stereotyping” were not fully understood by calypso lovers and many would say, “Dat is good Kaiso”. I’m not against criticism of course, just against unfairness. I could never understand the view that one group of people could be always wrong and the other group never wrong. But that’s just me.
That being said, this calypso was OK. It was a little tired though, and a little trite, and not very creative. On top of all that, parts of his delivery were rushed and garbled. I think that if another Calypsonian had sung this song, even with clearer diction, they would not have won. Sometimes I think the judges have this nostalgic/romantic prejudiced opinion of a calypsonian that causes them to be star-struck on Dimanche Gras night.
I’ve always been confused by the Monarch results, and this helped to cement my belief that I could never be a judge in the finals. I just can’t tell what the judges are looking for.
Posted in Calypso, Carnival, Culture, Entertainment, Media | 9 Comments »
Monday, February 5th, 2007 |
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| Trevor Paul |
Trevor Paul has put his foot down once and for all. Taking a break from all those bold face protesters, and the dangerous men with the printerless fliers, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service has turned its focus to protecting the Carnival revellers and attendees.
“No one will spoil our mas,” said he. “Let me warn those with agendas which would counter the good order…You will not be allowed to disrupt those who are about their lawful business either playing mas, or looking at mas.”
He added that citizens can be sure that, “(the police) will be watching their backs.”
“Our operations will be guided by intelligence and we know where we should be and when,” said Paul.
Intelligence – now there’s a word that gets abused.
And don’t get me wrong, it’s great that the carnival attendees are going to be protected from bandits and rapists, but since I’m not going to take part in any of the festivities, and since I’m not going as a spectator, where does that leave me? Somehow it looks like crimewise, I have the same crappy chances during the Carnival season as I did going into it.
But hold on. Since there is going to be a large concentration of officers on the streets during Carnival Monday and Tuesday, does that mean that officers are going to be pulled away from other seemingly “low risk” areas only to be crammed in Port of Spain and environs.
What about the vehicle situation? Are vehicles going to be pulled away from the same low risk areas to be utilised in high risk ones?
So how safe am I, a regular citizen and non-Carnival event attendee? Are the police going to be able to break away from their two busy days of gaping guarding to attend to my needs as they might arise?
Surely, the Trinidad and Tobago police service hasn’t yet learned how to pat its head and rub its tummy at the same time?
It looks like my chances are worse than I previously thought. I may have to play mas just to stay safe.
Posted in Carnival, Crime, Culture | 7 Comments »
Friday, October 13th, 2006 |
*First of all I apologise for not doing very well this week when it came to posting to my blog. I had a very busy week. Thanks to all who sent concerns and then threats (Hottie).
On Sunday night I went to the very last night of Ramleela which is always the best because that’s when they burn the effigy of Rawan and I always appreciate a good blaze. Of course like every other final Ramleela night I have ever been to, it rained like first time. When I say rain, I mean hard rain. So people had to seek out shelter wherever they could. All this time Rawan with his twisty moustache, red shirt, blue pants and evil grin was standing in the middle of the field getting soaked no tail.
Everyone who had something to sell was out there including the doubles man, the saheena/pholourie woman, the sno cone man, and the cotton candy man. There was even a guy out there selling light-up toys that were popular with the children since it was dark.
An old man standing next to me looked at me and said, “Rain, boy, rain!”
“This thing go really burn with all that rain it collect today?” I asked him.
“Yeah man,” he said,”the amount ah thing they does put in that, it ha to bun.”
After the reenacments from the Ramayana were over, and all the kick and cuff from the mock battles were though, it was time for Rawan to meet his doom. Now last year I think we had an equal amount of rain and Rawan still went up in flames quite easily. But this year Rawan wasn’t going down without a fight.
When it was time to light him afire, a group of youths came up and lit a tiny fire on the ground before Rawan. Next a chicken-chest youth of about 18 came up and dipped his arrow (I assumed was soaked in pitch oil) into the fire and got it alight. He stepped back, drew back the arrow, fired, and missed. The next arrow hit Rawan in the arm, but it didn’t stick and it fell off. The third arrow hit Rawan dead in the crotch. His crotch burned for about 15 seconds then extinguished eliciting giggles from the crowd. A barrage of arrows came next. The ones that stuck did absolutely nothing. Rawan was just too drenched this time. Eventually chicken-chest boy got an arrow to lodge in Rawan’s stomach and it got a tiny flame going, but it was obvious it wasn’t going to last.
Someone got the bright idea to bring out a 10-gallon container of liquid onto the scene, the fumes from which confirmed it wasn’t pitch oil but gasoline. Any receptacle they could find they filled with gasoline; be it sweet drink bottle or paint can. Luckily the crowd was about 40-50 feet back from the madness because then they started hurling the open containers at the 60 foot effigy. So bottle flinging, bucket pelting, and people stepping further back. The gas would start escaping from the receptacle as soon as it left the pelters’ hands, hit Rawan’s tiny stomach fire and would create a trail of fire leading back to the pelters’ feet. If you think this sounds like madness, then you would agree with the man who was standing beside me:
“But what trouble? Deez chirren mad? Dat is madness!”
I had to agree with him especially as gasoline appeared to be falling all over the pelters themselves, which couldn’t be good. With every arrow that stuck, the tassa started up a strong celebratory rhythm, but died down each time with the flame.
So 25 minutes after the gas-pelting began, Rawan refused to die gracefully. Part of his arm was gone and, his stomach and crotch were both heavily scared, but he stood strong. And the situation was growing increasingly worse as a large maze of fire streaks had developed at the feet of the pelters.
The boys then decided to slit open Rawan’s legs and place Coke bottles filled with gasoline into the bottom of the effigy. And why not? It wouldn’t have been the craziest thing they did that day. Someone then fetched a ladder and placed it up against Rawan’s stomach while another person scaled up it holding the now half-empty 10 gallon container. Now Mr. Man opened up a hole in the stomach and start to pour gas into the stomach shaking the container so that the gas sprinkled. Mind you, the effigy is still smouldering, eh. All this time the fire services park outside of the compound and them fellas stretching-out atop the appliance, seemingly not too concerned that gasoline was being hurled around like insults on a UNC platform.
So gas pouring and Rawan smouldering. All of a sudden, thing blaze up. Effigy start to bun like somebody press fast forward. And this youth man still high up on the ladder with the gasoline container. Well he drop that in a one and boy, I never see a man descend so fast. Talk ’bout twinkle toes? So he scramble down and somehow managed not to get incinerated, and four or five of them yank away the ladder from the effigy in so doing, the ladder nearly fell on some of the pelters who were smart enough to hang back, but not smart enough to hang way the hell back. And with about 35 minutes elapsing since the first arrow from the chicken-chest youth, Rawan’s upper body was ablaze and the tassa rolled victoriously without ceasing. It did start to die a little though, but just at the right time all the gas poured into the effigy ignited the coke bottles at the bottom and it blazed up again. By this time the crowd collectively stepped back about 5 feet because the heat emanating from the blaze became unbearable.
And with that Rawan crumpled to the ground. Some of the boys decided they wanted to salvage the ropes that kept him erect so four of them tried tugging one of them but Rawan was keeping those and they gave up.
I didn’t wait to see Rawan burn out completely, because we (my friend and I) had to beat the traffic coming out of the site. So we left the scene, I with my inferno lust satisfied for yet another year.
Discussion Questions
Fire Saftey and You: What is your favourite accelerant?
Why would an intelligent human being throw gasoline at an open flame 60 feet above him?
What other mental health issues does your community face?
Posted in Culture, Humour, Personal Story | 13 Comments »
Wednesday, September 27th, 2006 |
Since Saucy and Hottie gave their lists of Carnival Dos and Don’ts, I decided not to be upstaged and submit my own unscientific list. Here is my list of 6.
- Know who is vagrant. Come carnival and worse yet Jouvert morning, everybody does look the same. Vagrant does begin to look like ordinary people. Sometimes, they walking along with the band and pick up two/three piece ah costume and they look like normal masquerader. This warning especially for tourists who does wine and jam with everybody. Don’t wine on the vagrant. One good way of telling who is who, is the footwear test. If the footwear not matching, run. If on the left is a Nike, and on the right is Adidas, run. If one slippers red, and the other side green, run, run , run. However, the footwear test is not the end all of it. Some vagrant does have family who does give them clothes and shoes although they still living on the streets. So if in doubt, check out their hair. If it matted (not dreaded mind you), and nasty-looking, run. Overall if the winer looks a little off, run.
- Do however wine on the hard-working police officers on our streets. Police officers are people too and appreciate a good wine. Do not however wine one the female officers or the horses. That may get you aressted. While I’m on it, don’t pet the horses or talk to them. Women, if your winer-man is talking to the horse, run.
- Learn that cute children can steal and pickpocket with the best of them and they can run faster than your drunk self.
- Know that a doubles on any given day, does not cost $5. If you pay $5 for a doubles is because you are a tourist or looking like one.
- Over the course of that weekend, don’t take your drunk self and go and say you taking a sea bath. You will die.
- Don’t drink any “juices” that aren’t labelled and sealed. You will get the runs first, then you will die.
Posted in Carnival, Culture, Humour | 24 Comments »
Tuesday, September 26th, 2006 |
About a couple weeks ago I blogged my own opinion that if money were poured into Ram Leela and Divali, it could become a major money earner for Trinidad. However, not everyone shares my enthusiasm for it. Reading the Guardian today I came across this story whose author was uncredited:
Ramleela council peeved at Govt
The National Ramleela Council is peeved at Government’s decision to blank its annual cash grant to Ramleela groups taking part in Carifesta IX.
Deosaran Sankar, vice-president of the NRC, said in an interview yesterday that he was informed by a senior official of the Ministry of Culture that the ten groups participating in Carifesta IX would not be getting their annual grant to stage celebrations in their village.
Sankar said the organization received $28,500 from the Carifesta IX committee to stage celebrations for Carifesta.
But, he said, the production staged by the group has already crossed the budget and is now in the $30,000 bracket.
What madness is that? How can they decide to just cut the funding because the groups were already funded for Carifesta? When I tell you sometimes that we can be backward when it comes to development, iz no joke. and you have to wonder sometimes if Government ministers are playing with a full deck. Once again it’s tall buildings, smelters and useless stadia, yes; and culture, no. Culture must once again take a kick in the teeth. And you can understand why people accuse the Government of being high-handed and aloof.
Posted in Culture, Politics | 7 Comments »
Thursday, September 7th, 2006 |
It’s a great idea from the Tourism Development Company and Pantrinbago that will feature four weekends of pan hosted by various pan yards across the country. But the idea of having pan music outside of carnival is by no means original. People have been protesting for years that pan all but vanishes after Ash Wednesday. It’s interesting to note that in Trinidad and Tobago where the steel pan is the national instrument, it’s near impossible to find steel pan events year round. And so hopefully this is the end of lip service and the beginning of a more visible instrument throughout the year.
This Pan Yard Sensations concert series entertain folks for almost the entire month of September and will take pan music to all areas of the country and somehow, they even managed to remember Tobago.
It will also incorporate guest performances from (I’m guessing here) soca and calypso artists that will add a dash of pepper sauce to the concert, just in case the pan becomes too monotonous. Great idea!
Said Angela Fox Media/Communications liaison of Pantrinbago Incorporated,
“Pan Yard Sensations was born out of a need to not only showcase steel pan music, but to also showcase it within the context of its birthplace – the pan yard. The rustic charm of the pan yard is unique and is an integral part of this instrument’s history, and by extension, our people’s history. The pan yard is a place of innovation and creation and we want people to experience that as well.”
It’s amazing how a little vision could go a long way. We have the talent; we have the ability to put on a great show; we have thousands of steel pans. Why shelve it every Ash Wednesday when pan men and everyone else involved could be showcasing their talent and earning a dollar at the same time?
A little vision will also help Divali to go a long way. Picture this: Trinidad is about 40% Indian – give or take – with Hindus making up a large portion of that. We have talent coming out of our ears as I’ve said before (or was it noses), and there is no diminishing in interest in Indian traditions from what I can tell. As a matter of fact, the interest in Indian traditions is surging forward.
India’s population is well over a billion and the Diaspora stretches forth deep into the United States and Canada with Trinidad quite likely having the densest concentration of Indians in the Western Hemisphere except maybe for Guyana. With all the factors, why haven’t we yet made Trinidad the Western-Hemisphere Mecca for all things Indian? And in particularly Indian celebrations?
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| A Scene from Ramleela |
Our Divali celebrations are huge and quite possibly larger than anything experienced in the US or Canada. Preceding Divali, we have a number of good Ramleela productions that are put on in communities across Trinidad. Indians who live in North America simply cannot go home to India for Divali every year and far less for Ramleela. Travel costs and the time will surely make frequent visits near impossible. But on the bright side: less than one day’s flight from any North American destination and voila! What do you know? It’s little India.
I’m convinced that Divali and Ramleela can become a huge tourism booster in Trinidad in the latter half of the year. Think about it for a second. In terms of talent, geographical location, and resources we can have the Western Hemisphere market cornered – hands down. Let’s face it, Guyana would not be able to compete. This is ours for the taking. And what does it take?
A large Divali celebration can see a huge influx of Indian-American visitors who want a taste of the old country at a fraction of the time and cost. Of course it’s not limited to North Americans alone, but also Indians living in the other Caribbean Islands and even in South America (don’t tell me there aren’t any). Pretty soon, it won’t be just Indians. And what will it take besides a little initiative.
Of course, we won’t be ready to put on something of this magnitude without some serious groundwork, but undeniably, we have all the raw materials.
When the tourists do begin to come, they won’t just be sampling Indian culture, but the entire culture of Trinidad. Think what this could mean for, cooks, massmen, pan men, craftsmen and everything outside of the regular indo-Trinidadian fare. And of course everyone from the hotelier to the regular taxi driver will benefit.
But it has to be built first. If you build it they will come. If you build it and kick some serious marketing butt, they will come in droves.
This is diversification; not putting smelters on agricultural lands. The benefits will be greater (and longer lasting) than hosting the Cricket World Cup and it’s definitely better than hosting a Miss Universe competition.
But that’s just my take. You all can disagree with me if you like.
Posted in Culture, Development, Politics | 4 Comments »
